James Bowdoin

1746 or 1747

Joseph Badger American, 1708-1765

On View

American, Level 2, West Wing

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Published References

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Catalogue Raisonné

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About the Artwork

This portrait shows Boston merchant James Bowdoin (1676 – 1747) with clues to the sources of his wealth and prominence. A silver inkwell and feather quill sit on the table to his left, while through the window, a ship with full sails approaches the shore. Born in France, Bowdoin immigrated with his family to Ireland, then Casco, Maine, and finally Boston, Massachusetts, in 1690. He built an immense fortune as a merchant in the maritime trade; by his death, he was one of the wealthiest men in Massachusetts.

Self-taught artist Joseph Badger painted this portrait at the very end of Bowdoin’s life. In addition to portrait commissions, Badger painted signs and houses, and glazed windows to earn a living.

Title James Bowdoin

Artwork Date 1746 or 1747

Artist Joseph Badger

Life Dates 1708-1765

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. American

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 51 1/8 × 50 1/8 inches (129.9 × 127.3 cm) Framed: 56 3/4 × 46 7/8 × 2 5/8 inches (144.1 × 119.1 × 6.7 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department American Art before 1950

Credit Founders Society Purchase, Gibbs-Williams Fund

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 58.354

Markings

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Provenance

the sitter's daughter, Elizabeth Bowdoin (Boston, Massachusetts, USA);
her great-great-grandson, S. Lendall Pitts (Detroit, Michigan, USA);
Mrs. S. Lendall Pitts (Norfolk, Virginia, USA).
1958-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

For more information on provenance, please visit:

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Exhibition History

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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.

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Published References

Bridgman, T. The Pilgrims of Boston. New York, 1856, pp. 2-3.

Winthrop, R. C. The Life of Bowdoin. Boston, 1876.

Goodwin, D. Life and Services of James Pitts and his Sons. Chicago, 1881, pp. 3, 46.

Goodwin, D. Provincial Pictures by Brush and Pen. Chicago, 1886, pp. 3-4, 7-11, 15 (ill.).

Paintings by Early American Artists. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1915, no. 1.

Park, Lawrence. “An Account of Joseph Badger and a Descriptive List of his Work.” Massachusetts Historical Proceedings 51 (December 1917): p. 165.

_____________. Joseph Badger. Boston, 1918, pp. 9-10.

Pilgrim Tercentenary Exhibition. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1921, no. 1.

A Loan Exhibition of American Colonial and Early Federal Art. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1930, no. 70.

Richardson, E.P. “American Painting.” Bulletin of the DIA 14, 1 (October 1934): pp. 11-12.

Sellers, Charles Coleman. “Mezzotint Prototypes of Colonial Portraiture: A Survey Based on the Research of Waldron Phoenix Belkbnap, Jr.” Art Quarterly 20, 4 (Winter 1957): pp. 425, 427 (pl. 14E).

Belknap, Waldron Phoenix, Jr. American Colonial Painting. Cambridge, MA, 1959, p. 290 (pls. 14 E and 18).

Portraits of Eight Generations of the Pitts Family from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Centuries. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1959, pp. 20-21.

Payne, Elizabeth. “Pitts Family Portraits of the Eighteenth Century.” Antiques 77 (January 1960): pp. 87-89 (ill.).

Sadik, Marvin S. Colonial and Federal Portraits at Bowdoin College. Brunswick, ME, 1966, pp. 22, 24.

Paul Revere’s Boston. Exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts. Boston, 1975, p. 35, no. 33 (ill.).

American Paintings in the Detroit Institute of Arts, Volume 1: Works by Artists Born Before 1816. New York, 1991, p. 25, no. 5 (ill.).

Docherty, Linda J. “A Family History: The Bowdoin Portrait Collection.” American Art Review (February-March 1994): pp. 136-143.

American Beauty: Painting and Sculpture from the Detroit Institute of Arts 1770-1920. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 2002, pp. 7-8 (ill.).

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